WASHINGTON — They're simple T-shirts with the words Washington Strong emblazoned over a silhouette of Illinois. In the middle of that silhouette is a heart, where tornado devastated Washington stands. Since the week the Nov. 17 tornado hit, 12,500 of those shirts have been sold.

Not only are the bright orange T-shirts popping up everywhere in central Illinois, they're being found in places one wouldn't expect.

"I had a friend who was walking through an airport in Singapore and he saw someone wearing a bright orange Washington Strong T-shirt," Roger Holzhauer, co-owner of Team Works by Holzhauer in Washington, said last week.

"That's crazy to think about. It would be cool just to see a shirt at O'Hare," he said of the airport in Chicago.

Team Works Holzhauer Inc., along with Brunks Sports Center, have been selling these shirts to help raise money for the City of Washington Tornado Relief Fund

"We've sold 12,500 T-shirts at our place. Sell it at $20 a shirt, and it adds up in a hurry," Holzhauer said. He produced a bank receipt from a recent trip to Washington Community Bank, where both he and the owners of Brunks drop off the money raised. The receipt shows the sum in black bold print: $330,648.

The Wednesday after the tornado hit, Holzhauer approached his childhood neighbor and current Mayor Gary Manier to ask if he could print some shirts and sell them to raise relief money. After a blessing from the mayor, the shirts started selling faster than they could be printed.

"It took us an hour, probably less than an hour, to sell the first 1,000 shirts. We put a post on Facebook that got a ton of attention. A tweet stating the T-shirts were being sold was re-tweeted 800 times. We got so many emails, it crashed our email server," Holzhauer said. "We had so many voice mails left: countless. I've been answering 50 to 60 voice mails a day since we started selling the T-shirts, and I'm only caught up to Nov. 23 voice mails."

For weeks, Team Works would have lines out the door waiting to pick up shirts. Luckily for customers Dan and Cathy Bandeko, the lines haven't been popping up lately. Multiple members of their family lost their homes in the tornado, including Cathy Bandeko's elderly mother, so they have been busy.

The Bandekos met at Washington Community High School but now live in East Peoria. With so many family members and friends hurt by the tornado, the fact that the T-shirts would go to help victims was a big reason for their purchase.

"It's an extra incentive. Being as involved as we are, it's great to give back and it's such an easy way to help," Dan Bandeko said.

The tornado relief fund was formed by the United Fund for Washington, a charitable organization for the city formed in 1959. A committee will oversee that fund and distribute the money. Holzhauer is quick to emphasize that all the money raised will go to those in need.

Page 2 of 2 - "I have a friend that says when he's talking about the United Fund for Washington that they're like ivory soap: they're 99 percent pure. None of this money is going to pay for someone's salary here or a trip there. The money is going to be used correctly."

Holzhauer's confidence that the money will go to the people in need is only matched in his confidence that the city he's spent his life in will bounce back and rebuild. The fact that the T-shirts he sold would help that process is not lost on him.

"It's kind of surreal what a simple T-shirt can do. I grew up a mile down the road, my wife a half mile down the road. I know this is what Washington does," Holzhauer said. "I know it says Washington Strong on the shirt, but it's also means Washington Forward. We will move forward and recover as a town united."